Tuesday, November 11, 2014

a visit from naomi.

a few pretty photos from our walk in ft. tryon park, & the view of the hudson river, to get us started...

this last weekend ben's older sister naomi came to visit. i've been looking forward to her coming for a while - naomi is SUCH a delight. we love her so so much. we visited some great places, ate way too much yummy food, chatted away the hours of the day & loved every minute of it. here are a few photos of just a few of the fun things we did while she was here.

more photos from our walk in fort tryon park:

we really, really lucked out with the weather on saturday (i always feel responsible for the weather when people come to visit. if it rains i'm like, "on behalf of the rain, i am SO. SORRY." haha). look how beautiful it was outside!

our first stop of the morning (which, actually, check that - ben & naomi went out that morning [while i, true to form for better or for worse, grabbed juuuust an extra minute or two of sleep] to grab some bagels & visit the cathedral of st. john the divine, last seen on the blog HERE, & columbia campus, so that stuff was actually their first stop of the morning) was the cloisters. a branch of the metropolitan museum of art, the cloisters are quite a ways up at the top of the island & feature medieval art & architecture. it is a gorgeous museum & i love it up there. ben & i hadn't been in a while, so it was really good to go back (remember the photo shoot we did at the cloisters a million years ago?). the photos from ft. tryon park at the beginning of this post were taken as we walked from the subway stop over to the cloisters.

*cue heavenly choirs & the like*

i really wish more lds churches had stained glass windows. my thoughts are always lifted to higher, more divine planes when i'm looking up at a tall, colorful stained glass window:

the natural lighting was to die for!

i love, love this picture of naomi:

the coloring of these next few are so weird. sorry about that. ben & naomi were sitting in such a beautiful location i couldn't help but snap a few pictures. tonight as i was putting this post together i spent a few minutes tinkering with the coloring & exposure of the photos, but impatience won out & i figured i'd just give a disclaimer about the photos, which you are reading now, instead of spending one more minute working out buggin' lighting minutiae.

the unicorn tapestries. so so good! so so problematic symbolism for women everywhere!

we loved this curving road we came across while leaving the museum. while we were down at the bottom waiting at the bus stop, we saw two different mail trucks turn up this drive & slowly make their way towards the winding top. maybe it's a fun drive? or the cloisters just receives a lot of mail?

later on that day (after grabbing hot chocolate at city bakery, of the best-hot-chocolate-in-the-entire-city fame & a walk through chelsea), we visited the highline. if i remember correctly, naomi had this on her list of places to see, so it was fun to walk along the converted railroad track.

such a verdant little oasis in the middle of the city!

ignore the backs of heads in this photo - instead appreciate the beautiful explosion of trees that surround the path on both sides!

& here's what i did while ben & naomi explored the high line - reclined on the wooden lounge chairs that line the highline path, used my belly as a table for my phone like a boss, & read this (ben & i are leading a discussion on it this week!)

we loved having you, naomi! you are a conversationalist, eternal optimist, & delightful older sister for the record books. come again :)

2 comments:

The weather had better be just as beautiful this weekend. If not, I'm holding you personally responsible ;-) Also, that's one fierce unicorn--just like me! Also, did you know that the artist whose painting is on the cover of "Women at Church" used to be in Brigham and Christine's ward?

I loved every single instant of our weekend, Shayla. You and Benjamin gave me such a wonderful gift of your time and company. Benjamin is totally right--without you, his life would be sadly boring, and my 36th birthday would have been too! Love you.